Customer Reviews

Photoshop Elements 7 for Windows: Visual QuickStart Guide

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I'm a photoshop and photoshop elements instructor, and always upgrading my learning of the tools in these programs, as well as looking at books to recommend to students. I have five photoshop elements books, although only one on elements 7, and find this one (as well as Scott Kelby's Elements for Digital Photographers, but the Elements 7 edition isn't out yet) to be the most useful over-all reference and teaching tool for learning the program. Although the McLelland's One-on-One series is more thorough and comprehensive, some of McClelland's exercises are much too advanced for beginners, who are likely to be confused if too much is thrown at them at once.

Carlson's Visual Quickstart Guide breaks down the program tool by tool and technique by technique, with clear instructions and illustrations for each. All that is lacking is a cd or dvd with practice files --- but you will generally pay considerably more for photoshop and photoshop elements books which have them.

The Visual QuickStart Guides are a popular way to get started with a new software or get up-to-date with the latest upgrade of your favorite software. This QuickStart Guide by Jeff Carlson covers Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 and there is a lot of information packed into this book. Photoshop Elements 7 has grown from a miniature version of Photoshop to a graphic and photo editing software in its own right. Therefore, you will find some information in this guide that you may not have considered important for previous versions of Elements. As the software has grown up, so has the need for a comprehensive reference guide. This book answers that need, with its task-based, illustrated step-by-step instructions covering all the tools and features of this latest upgrade. Also, as you work through the book, you will notice that the author has included supporting information such as color modes and profiles, image resolution and file size, and file formats and image output.

The author starts with a tour of the new Photoshop Elements 7 workspace and introduces the new features and enhancements. He then jumps right into teaching the basic tasks in the improved Organizer. He also discusses one of Elements newest features which is the integration of Elements with [...].

A big part of Photoshop Elements is its image editing features. The author covers how to use the many editing tools, especially concentrating on the one-click auto fixes such as the Quick Fix Edits and the preset actions and effects in the Guided Edit pane. But he also covers how to use the tools for making manual fixes and alterations to your images including the selection tools, color adjustments and photo merging.

Moving on to the next part of the book, the author introduces the creative tools including how to use layers, styles, blend modes, filters and special effects. He also covers how to use the painting, drawing and text tools and how to format text and create your own images from scratch.

The author finishes with how to prepare images for the web and the options for optimizing your images. He also covers how to print, order and share your photos directly from within the Photoshop Elements workspace and how to create slide-shows, online albums and how to email your photos.

Jeff Carlson has a design company called Never Enough Coffee Creations and is the author of many books and articles.

Photoshop Elements 7 by Jeff Carlson is a fabulous, full-color book with a treasure trove of information. Elements just keeps getting better and better, and this version is a winner. This excellent book helps you take full advantage of everything Elements can do.

This book is a beauty. It's packed with easy-to-read, understandable directions and there are helpful color illustrations on almost every page,. Everywhere you look, there is a "Tip"-the icing on the cake--and step-by-step instructions. And, the pages are tabbed so it's fast and easy to thumb though and look up a subject.

This soft-cover 384-page book flows through 14 chapters and ends with Editor and Organizer Keyboard Shortcuts. Although a dedicated beginner could use the book, I think an intermediate to advanced user would get the most out of it.

The book covers all the usual subjects like the work areas in the Organizer and the Editor and progresses logically through the features. I picked up lots of interesting information. For instance, you can place your photos on the map, literally. With the map and pushpin feature, you can associate your files with a specific geographical location in the Organizer. I've seen this feature for a few years but it somehow flew under the radar.

In the editor, there are limitless possibilities for editing, enhancing and generally wrecking havoc with your photos. Every action you take has all sorts of exciting ways of combing tools for creative control and a wider a palette of effects. You can erase backgrounds, change tones, remove objects, composite images, and enhance perspective. Once you start working with layers, a whole new world of digital editing opens up. After that, you can explore painting and drawing, working with type and distort your images in crazy ways. You'll be the new digital Dali.

Finally you can review all the ways to share your photos that Elements 7.0 offers. Create slide shows, lively PDF files, web galleries, interactive albums, and much more. And, if you want to do something really retro, you could print your photos. This book will give you lots on info on all of these subjects.

While well organized and most certainly covering the subject matter, this book is not for the faint-of-heart... that is, those who are not computer or photoshop savvy. The explanations, while good, are nerdy, and frankly assume quite a bit of knowledge on the part of the reader. I have used Adobe Photoshop Elements #5 for about three or four years, so I figured I would have little trouble with Elements #7 -- wrong. I bought this book as it was the only in the book store where I went for help, and found that many of the explantions were simply over my head; I did not know what the author was talking about. So, this book is probably great for those with their heads stuck into a computer, but for others I would recommend they look elsewhere for understandable help.

This instructional book on PSE7 does a great job of explaining the features and giving instruction on how to use the tools and features. Though there are books on how to get near fullscale Photoshop results using Elements, this books purpose is geared more towards just getting the average user familiar with it's functions. I mainly use Elements7 to edit photos and wanted to become more comfortable using the organizer feature and this book helped quite a bit in that regards. There's nothing fancy here but it's pretty straight forward and easy to follow.

Though I bought this book and the program over a year ago, I only recently installed the program and read the book. Had I realized how powerful and accessible Photoshop Elements is, I'd have entered this world sooner. This visual quickstart guide is intended as a reference book, not as a page by page read. Being an inveterate nonconformist, I elected to take the page by page route.

Reading the book before exploring Elements 7 can be a bit daunting, as I soon discovered. After abandoning the book, I jumped into Elements 7, doing as much as I could doing some intuitive exploration. When I returned to the book afterwards, it was much more understandable and familiar.

The best way to use this book, however, is as a reference/help book, with book open to the appropriate page while sitting in front of one's computer with Elements 7 on the screen. I like that the book contains color photographs, but some are too small to be of much help and because of their small sizes, some before and after pictures look frustratingly similar.

Occasionally the author doesn't cover a topic as thoroughly as this neophyte would like. On one topic, he explained the basics and then suggested the user then make additional adjustments using three unexplained controls. Ironically those were the very three buttons I didn't understand and for which I was seeking information.

Though not perfect for this user, Carlson's Photoshop Elements 7 has guided me successfully through the Elements 7 maze.

The problem I found with this book as an instructional tool is that it is a little complex for a novice.

I am new to Adobe, and the book assumes that one has knowledge of Adobe Photo Shop.

I found it very difficult to follow. It is not "user Friendly".

Don Livingston

I didn't want to buy the latest version of Photoshop Elements, since I already own 2.0, 3.0, and 7.0. Finding this book at great price sure did help. The book arrived ahead of the estimated date and is in excellent condition.

Pleasant experience.

I needed this as a textbook for a class I am taking. I found the illustrations and instructions in this book to be easy to follow and helpful in doing my assignments step by step.

Photoshop Elements 7 for Windows is an outstanding 'quickstart' visual guide to Photoshop Elements which covers easy steps and explanations. Jeff Carlson works for a design company and writes for top-level computer magazines, and is a technology columnist for the Seattle Times: his backgrounds lends well to a guide packed with black and white and color examples throughout, reinforcing instructions on the basics for Photoshop Elements 7 for Windows.